Arson suspected in Oliver grocery store fire

The owners of an Oliver area grocery store severely damaged by what’s believed to be arson say they are still “processing” the ordeal.

“At around 10 p.m. (Sunday) night we were alerted by one of the kind (gentlemen) that we need to vacate our house as there was a huge fire burning on the other side of our store and roof,” a social media post signed by Global Grocers owners Deepak, Riz and Aarav Gaba read.

“Our brave firefighters fought this huge fire hard amid strong gusts of wind until 2 a.m. and managed to minimize the damage. (The) fire was contained by smart decisions made by the team to save our main business building, our bread and butter.”

The family explained that their property’s wooden fence, a storage area, and another part of the building burned to the ground.  The community has rallied around them, according to the post, and they are working their way through next steps.

The Oliver fire department said the blaze at Global Grocers on Highway 97 is suspicious and arson is expected.

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“Crews were quickly on the scene to battle the blaze, making quick exterior and interior attacks to the building,” the fire department said.

“High winds at the time were pushing the fire towards the rest of the structure, and several building additions made access to the rest of the fire difficult.”

As firefighters were battling the structure fire, a vehicle fire was reported in the area of Oliver’s School Ave. Firefighters were quick to respond and knock the vehicle fire down before returning to the structure fire.

No relation between the two fires is apparent at this time, the fire department said.

Anyone with details of both fires is asked to contact the RCMP with information.